There was a car waiting for them at the airport as soon as the plane had landed, which honestly didn't come as too big of a surprise to August. It took them directly to Taylor's family

home which looked pretty great to say the least.

"It's beautiful," August said, glancing at Taylor who had reached over to ring the bell. They set their bags down on the welcome mat, waiting for the door to open

"Yeah," Taylor smiled at her brightly. "I'll show you around tomorrow."

It was pretty late in the afternoon and the sun was just setting. Thankfully, the weather wasn't too stuffy.

It wasn't long before the large doors opened and an older woman stood in front of them dressed comfortably in jeans and a white blouse.

Her arms instantly engulfed the blonde in a warm hug.

"Hi, mom!" Taylor exclaimed in a voice that was much too excited and happy and August beamed at Taylor's pure joy. She had never seen her smile so big before.

"I missed you so much, sweetheart!"

"I missed you too!" Taylor whispered and gave her mother a peck on the cheek before finally pulling away. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh! I'm great. And you must be August! It's so lovely to finally meet you!"

To her surprise, Andrea engulfed her in a hug as well. August was taken aback but she eventually relaxed and hugged the older woman back.

"Oh, I'm sorry, with the virus and all, but, we all need a hug sometimes, don't we?"

August almost wanted to cry because, yeah, she really did need a hug and she was always the kind of person who was too stubborn to seek affection from loved ones.

"You're not wrong," August laughed softly when she was released from the embrace. "It's great to meet you too, Andrea. You have a lovely home."

"Aw, thank you! Come on in, I was just about to start with dinner. You girls can go ahead and get settled in and your brother should be home any minute now, anyway," Andrea said, letting them walk inside.

Taylor led the way upstairs, showing August the guest room she was going to be staying in.

"I'll be in this room right next to yours, by the way," Taylor said. "The bathroom's right across the hall— oh, and! Phoebe can just run around. You can let her out. I'm sure she can take Kitty."

August raised her eyebrows, setting her dog carrier down first and then her bag. "Kitty? Is that another cat?"

Taylor laughed and shook her head. "Oh, no. She's my mom's massive dog."

August's hand stilled over the crate's lock. Phoebe was restless, whining and turning around in the small box over and over again. "How massive?"

"Human sized," Taylor grinned toothily and escaped from the guest room to her own room.

August opened the crate for Phoebe and immediately carried her in her arms. She followed Taylor into the bedroom next to hers and walked inside. She didn't know what she was expecting, but it looked pretty average. Actually, quite comfortable, all cream coloured and gold linings. There was just one massive teddy bear in the middle of the bed and Taylor jumped face first, tackling the stuffed animal.

August grinned, pulling out her phone with her free hand to snap a quick picture.

"If your mother's dog kills mine, I am not forgiving you, but maybe this picture might make me feel just a little bit better," August said and Taylor's head snapped up so fast, August feared she might have broken her neck. But she was fine as she sat up into a more comfortable position.

"You're evil for this!" Taylor huffed, getting off the bed and finally letting each one of her cats out of their bags. They meowed and stretched their limbs before running outside and down the hall too fast for August to even register where they were headed. "This better not appear on the internet!"

"I'll send it to you and then use it as my wallpaper," August grinned. Taylor rolled her eyes but held her arms out anyway.

"Give me Phoebe, I'll make sure Kitty doesn't eat her. You can finally use the toilet."

August didn't hesitate in handing her dog over to Taylor. She trusted her. And besides, Phoebe could take care of herself. She had faith in her dog. And plus, god she really wanted to shower. It didn't matter that the flight was too short. She had needed to poop for hours and she definitely needed to get the airport microbes off her body.

"Just down the hall," Taylor repeated as she took Phoebe down the stairs.

August grabbed some clean clothes and headed to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. It was quite spacious, with both a bathtub and a shower and it was pretty much already equipped with everything.

August didn't feel too bad when she had spent a good hour in there doing nothing. Well, she texted a few people back, scrolled through her social media apps. A lot of people had caught on to the fact that she was travelling with Taylor Swift, but none of it was too big.

This could be her chance for that breath of fresh air she had been craving for some time now. Just sitting in the house's back garden seemed better than anywhere back home.

After drying her curls, she tied her hair up in a loose pony tail and got dressed in a comfortable pair of leggings and just a simple t-shirt.

August pushed her glasses up her nose, slid some socks on, and was on her way downstairs in search of Taylor. She had to talk to her about Lil Tay Tay.

She heard a conversation coming from a room downstairs which she found out was the kitchen. Taylor was leaning against the counter with her phone in her hand, talking to a man with short blond curls. It must have been her younger brother.

The two of them were arguing about something, August couldn't tell what, but Austin picked up a piece of roasted potato and tossed it across the kitchen at Taylor's head. She didn't duck in time and it hit her right on the forehead.

August couldn't help but snort as the potato piece fell to the floor. With Taylor gasping in disbelief and Austin laughing to himself, everyone was too distracted to notice the giant Great Dane run inside and swoop past Taylor to pick up the vegetable, almost making her trip if she hadn't been leaning on the counter.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Austin—"

"Oh, hey!" Austin interrupted his sister to grin at August. "August, right?"

"Yeah, hi," she laughed, waving at him from her spot leaning against the doorframe.

Taylor rolled her eyes. "This is Austin, the bane of my existence."

"Her younger brother slash greatest thing that has ever happened to her in all her thirty years in this world," Austin grinned brightly, quite charmingly in fact, and held his hand out which August shook eagerly.

"I wouldn't exactly say greatest..." Taylor mumbled when Andrea walked up behind August.

"You two better not be messing with my dinner," she said, gently pushing past August who stepped aside to let her through.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Austin grinned boyishly, kissing his mother's cheek on his way back out.

"Grab the chicken, hon," Andrea said, making Austin stop dead in his tracks and sigh while receiving the casserole dish.

They all grabbed a bowl of some sort and headed to the dining room, with the two dogs following them at a fast pace at the smell of food.

"August, your Phoebe is absolutely adorable!" Andrea said as they all sat down at the table and Phoebe had run to the older woman first, standing on her back paws with her tongue sticking out.

She was about to start begging for food as though August never fed her. She was a spoiled dog but, well, August loved her too much.

"You won't be saying that pretty soon," August chuckled softly, but Andrea picked the dog up and sat her in her lap.

"Salad, Auggie?" Taylor asked, holding out a bowl of leafs and assorted vegetables.

August accepted it gratefully and as she was filling her plate up, she turned to Taylor and smirked lightly. "Hey, so, I was wondering," she started, handing the bowl over to Austin who was sitting on her left. Taylor looked at her, eyes wide as though she knew exactly where this was going. She must have already talked to Gigi.

"I'm going to murder that model," Taylor muttered, stabbing a piece of lettuce with her fork.

"I'm not even going to ask," Andrea sighed, passing around the chicken and potatoes.

"Come on," August laughed softly. "Is there anything embarrassing on there?"

Taylor narrowed her eyes at August for a moment before turning to look at her food. "Not really. Well... obviously, it's a personal account but..."

"I'll tell you what mine is," August offered, hoping Taylor would fall for it. She didn't actually have a private instagram account.

Taylor seemed to think about it for a moment. She pulled out her phone and started scrolling through it for a moment.

"Okay, my curiosity has bested me," Austin finally said. "What's going on?"

"Your sister won't let me follow Lil Tay Tay on instagram," August grinned and took a bite of her food.

Austin chuckled, shaking his head at his older sister. "Oh, I'm surprised she didn't even tell you about it."

"You know, that was a really lovely picture you posted earlier of the two of you," Andrea mentioned, unaware of Taylor's absolute horror.

"You posted a picture of us? That's sweet!" August cooed teasingly, though now she really wanted to know what the picture was. She didn't recall taking a picture with her recently...

Taylor's cheeks were as red as the tomato stabbed by her fork. "That's a lie, I never posted a single picture of us!"

Just then, August's phone dinged with an instagram notification telling her that @liltaytay accepted her follow request. Interesting... She didn't want to be rude and use her phone at the dinner table but she couldn't ignore this.

When the account loaded, there wasn't much to see besides a few old photos of Taylor being as human as can be, many of her cats, and some of her with her family, pictures that weren't flattering enough to be posted for millions to see but were still meaningful enough, and some that were just too meaningful for millions to see.

But the last post had been from months ago. A selfie with Taylor, Blake Lively, and her youngest baby, and other friends August didn't recognise. Posted well before the lockdown. Somehow, August couldn't believe that was the last thing Taylor had ever posted on her private account. She had posted a lot more on her official instagram account when this one did in fact have hundreds of posts which meant she used it quite often, and the comments were never disabled which meant she felt safe enough to actually post as much.

"For some reason," August said, setting her phone down next to her. "I believe your mother."

"You should," Austin mentioned and just moments later, he yelped, leaning down to rub his leg.

"Come on," August chuckled softly. "Why don't you want me to see a picture of us?"

"Yeah, that's just weird, sweetheart," Andrea pointed out, still casually eating her potatoes and sneaking a piece for each of the dogs.

"Look, I'll just— I'll send it to you later," Taylor finally grumbled, desperate to change the subject.

August relented for now. She didn't want Taylor to feel worse, even though she didn't understand why she felt so embarrassed in the first place. But she did get the sense that having her family around while they had this conversation had something to do with it.

Austin went on to talk about his own job and August could see Taylor's shoulders visibly relax as the attention no longer was on her.

Dinner was lovely and though August was a guest here, she did feel quite comfortable. Andrea offered some desert and tea which was much needed before they all went their separate ways.

August waited in the backyard with the dogs for Taylor who wanted to wash up and change clothes before she came out and they decided to take them both for a walk.

Taylor was having a bit of a hard time getting Kitty to listen to her and though August would have loved to help her out, watching her struggle was rather amusing.

Eventually, she had given up and released the dog's leash. It was pretty safe around, with barely any cars passing by, if any at all and Kitty didn't stray too far anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal but August still shook her head at the singer in dismay.

"So, the rumours are true. You really do hate dogs," August said jokingly, letting Phoebe go and follow Kitty around. Surprisingly, the dog that was ten times her size was pretty gentle with her.

Taylor groaned and threw her hands up in the air. "I really don't! Kitty is just a fucking massive dog!"

"Uhu, okay," August smiled, pushing stray strands of hair behind her ears. "How are you? I mean, besides the obvious part where you're hiding something from me, but besides that."

Taylor rolled her eyes but she was fighting back a smile. "I'm happy, actually. I miss it here. Mom's usually with me quite often when I'm working. But I haven't seen her since the whole lockdown thing happened. I couldn't put her at risk, what with her health and everything."

August's gaze softened. "Why'd you invite me? I'm glad I'm here it's just... I mean, I'm an added risk, right?"

Taylor looked at her for a moment before sighing and returning her gaze to the dogs. "It seemed like you needed a break from reality for a few days."

August folded her arms over her chest, smiling as Phoebe attempted to fight off Kitty who was just licking her head. "I kinda did... yeah."

This particular part of the year always got to her pretty hard.

"It's pretty calm out here, and it doesn't really matter that we can't do much," Taylor explained, her arms swinging by her sides. She did look pretty relaxed already, even though she hadn't even been that stressed for the past few months.

"Hey, I'm not complaining! I think it's gonna be great for my mental health," she chuckled, whistling for Phoebe who was thinking of crossing the street. The dog immediately circled back and ran over to August's side.

"What about you?"

August looked up to meet Taylor's soft blue eyes. As the night was settling in already, under a lamppost, they still looked bright and welcoming.

"Are you doing alright?"

August smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I think you've had a big part in it," she admitted quietly, looking away immediately.

Taylor was quiet for a good few moments as they turned around to walk back toward the house, the dogs running ahead of them. "Here, I'll airdrop you the picture."

August raised her eyebrows in surprise, having honestly already forgotten about it, and pulled out her phone to receive the image. Well, two of them. When she finally saw then, she didn't know if she wanted to scream murder or breakdown crying.

They were soft pictures.

They were soft pictures of August napping on Taylor's shoulder both at the airport and on the plane. Taylor didn't look bothered in either of the two pictures. In fact, she looked amused as she was taking those pictures.

But while August was busy snoring, Taylor was busy documenting the moment, and then posting them on her private account for all her famous friends to see.

And also...

"Okay, I don't get why these pictures made you turn beet red at the table earlier," August pointed out, brushing her hair behind her ears.

"Nothing, it's just," Taylor shrugged. "I don't know. I thought maybe it would have bothered you."

That wasn't it. Not entirely.

"I'm fine with it," August chuckled. "You were just being really weird about it."

"Sorry," Taylor sighed and pulled her keys out, opening the door for them and the dogs. "Do you want the poop bag?"

August gagged overdramatically. "Why would you even ask that?" She exclaimed as Taylor laughed, throwing the bag with the dog poop into the bins outside before they all slipped into the house.

"Wanna hang out in the backyard for a bit? It's still a little early," Taylor mentioned as they stepped into the kitchen. They washed their hands in the sink and Taylor went to check the fridge for something to drink.

"Sure, that sounds nice, I won't be sleeping any time soon anyway, knowing me," August responded, accepting the soda Taylor silently offered.

"Because of all the naps you took! Oh, but we are gonna have to wake up early," Taylor mentioned, already heading back outside. August followed her, frowning confusedly.

"What? Why?"

"We're all going hiking."

August wanted to argue but then again, she was here crashing Taylor's family vacation. She would just go along. And besides, maybe some fresh air would do her some good. Of course, she would regret it just thirty minutes into the hike, but it was fine when they had all gone to have breakfast at a local diner and August got to go crazy on a stack of pancakes.